Tapping the central kitchen

Via Christi Medical Center’s Starbucks kiosk builds on an established brand.

The on-site location of a central kitchen means a wide variety of freshly prepared items can be produced in well-equipped existing space with well-trained production staff and then satellited to stock the smaller serveries. That helps assure high quality and freshness and significantly reduces kiosk staffing requirements. The other advantage of using central kitchen production is that kiosk staff is free to concentrate on providing the “personality” and not the “product.”

Examples: Sodexo's University of Wisconsin-Green Bay kiosk is totally stocked with centrally prepared items. And Salisbury University's satellite serveries are able to offer a truly extensive menu — 13 specialty sandwiches on Kaiser rolls, bagels, pitas, focaccia and wraps plus seven salads — only because all are prepared centrally by the board operation's kitchen.

The same is true at the aerospace manufacturing facility where the new C3 serveries are stocked each morning. An added advantage is the fact that runners from the main kitchen also can replenish supplies if necessary. Because there is no food production onsite at the servery, each unit is staffed by one person who stocks the units, opens doors, runs the cash register and calls for replenishments as needed.

“By empirical data alone, the operation is successful. Sales have more than doubled less than a month after opening. We're pretty close to capacity at lunch, having moved from 125 transactions daily to just south of 200 in our first month of operation. We're now thinking about opening up for breakfast,” says Parsonage. “On the non-empirical side, our client is ecstatic — we are delivering quality service to the far ends of the plant with very low overhead and few additional costs.”

Kiosk Basics: Location and Staffing

Look for traffic patterns and personality.

Location, location, location,” says Rick Warpinski, director of the University Union at University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, referring to what many say is the most important factor in planning a successful kiosk site.

LOCATION MATTERS. At the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, this Sodexo Smart Market does about 4,000 transactions a month.

“It has to be on a convenient, well-traveled path so customers don't have to go out of their way to find it. Ours is along a major walkway and needs little public relations to make it successful.“

Still, Warpinski says dining services works hard to keep the campus community aware of its hours of operation, sends out weekly e-mails promoting specials and offers “frequent buyer” cards to encourage repeat business.

“You have to walk by our cart to get to the elevator,” says Dexter Hancock, director of nutritional services at DCH Health System, in Tuscaloosa, AL, in talking about his profitable kiosk in the main lobby of an outpatient medical tower. “There's no way to get into the building without passing it.” In addition, the main cafeteria is a long walk away and it is easy to get lost in the walkways between buildings.

How You Staff It

At Grinnell (IA) Regional Medical Center, an 8-ft. × 18-ft. Corner Café is less than half the size of the nearby cafeteria but does almost as much business. The key to its success isn't the extensive menu of half and full made-to-order sandwiches — 17 specialty and six wrap — and salads, according to Kris Reed, director of nutrition services. The real key, he says, is Mary Anderson and Carla DeGeorge, who staff the café.